Dionte Christmas arrived at NBA Summer League with the Boston Celtics two weeks ago hoping to convince some team, any team, that he improved enough during the past three years to warrant his first NBA opportunity.

Christmas spent the past three seasons away from the United States basketball consciousness, making a living in overseas leagues. But with an impressive summer league campaign, the 25-year old played himself into a partially guaranteed contract with the Celtics, which the two sides agreed upon Sunday.

Known primarily as a shooter and scorer during four years at Temple, Christmas revealed aspects of his game during the NBA summer league that he developed during his time overseas. He rebounded well for a shooting guard (6.2 per game in the Orlando Summer League, 4.4 in Las Vegas), showed an improved ability to create shots for himself and others, defended the opponent's best wing every game and even demonstrated point guard skills when forced into ball-handling action.

Every collegiate star dreams of endorsement deals, multi-year NBA contracts and All-Star game appearances. Christmas got none of that, at least immediately. He went undrafted in the 2009 NBA Draft despite scoring 2,043 points at Temple. He hasn't played in NBA arenas since graduating college, but in Israel, the Czech Republic and Greece.

The 6-foot-5 guard received sizeable offers to continue his overseas career during the upcoming season, but a phone call to his father convinced Christmas to turn down substantial guaranteed dollars and continue chasing his NBA dream.

“I was pretty close, I was pretty close,” Christmas told CSNNE's Jessica Camerato on Sunday about signing overseas. “But I talked to my dad two nights ago and I was telling him the offers I got overseas and asked basically if it was worth it. My dad was like, ‘Keep chasing your dream. Don’t give up. Keep going for your dream. We’re not a poor family. Me and your mom are cool and you’re cool. It’s not about the money all the time. Just keep chasing your dream.’

“That was basically all I needed to hear. That kind of put me over the top, whether I got something from Boston or if somebody was going to take a leap on me, I’m going to go with them. I came this far, I didn’t want to give up.”

There's still a chance that Christmas fails to survive Celtics training camp. But with E'Twaun Moore traded away and three roster spots for grabs, Christmas is likely to make the opening day roster.

He's easy to root for. Christmas' circuitous path to the NBA wasn't what he expected or hoped for. He never got to hear David Stern call his name on draft night and he hasn't yet played the Los Angeles Lakers at the Staples Center. But somewhere on his long basketball odyssey, Christmas realized that he needed to make serious improvements to his game in order to impress NBA executives.

If he hadn't drawn their attention this summer, he might never have. With every season removed from college, undrafted stars fall farther from the NBA radar. So when Christmas seemed more hungry the past two weeks than other summer leaguers, it was mostly because he was.

“I basically showed them everything,” Christmas told Camerato of what he displayed during his summer league experience. “Most of all, I think I have a Boston Celtics style of play. I’m not talking about scoring, I’m talking about I’m very energetic, I’m vocal, I like to get in people’s space and play defense. I just like competition. I love to get under the opposing team’s skin. I have that Celtics type of play and I think they saw that. They saw that I was hungry and they saw that I wanted it. By me showing I could do everything like pass and rebound, they already knew I could score, but seeing me do everything, I think that really put it over the top. That right there showed the growth in my game by going overseas.”